Series Produced by:Gwen Deglise and Ray Greene.
Special animation programming consultant: Charles Solomon. Animated shorts programmed by
Ray Greene and Gwen Deglise. Program assistance from Margot Gerber, Robert Koehler, Wade
Major, Andrew Crane and Chris D. LAFCA and the Cinematheque would like to thank: The
Museum of Modern Art (New York); the Canadian Consulate (Los Angeles); the French
Consulate (New York); the Estate of Ladislas Starewitch; Canal Plus; Scott Roesch/Atom
Films.

Special
Thanks to:

SOLD OUT SCREENINGS: There will be a
waiting line for Sold Out screenings. Tickets often become available at the door the night
of an event.

Sold out programs will be indicated
here if sold out 24 hours in advance of screening date.

All guests are subject to
availability. The Cinematheque will offer a refund due to guest cancellations only IF the
refund transaction is complete PRIOR to the start of the show.

Tickets available
30 days in advance. Tickets are $9 general admission unless noted otherwise.

Some of the programs in this
series are also playing at the Aero
Theatre.

Presented in Association with Los Angeles Film Critics
Association

In this outgrowth of the L.A. Film Critics
Associations ongoing FILMS THAT GOT AWAY project, the focus is on great and
rarely shown animated features and short films, none of which have received commercial
theatrical distribution in the U.S. This ambitious and delightful program includes
European milestones like Ladislas StarewitchsREYNARD THE FOX (LE ROMAN DE
RENARD) (first time ever with English subtitles!)  a legendary but little seen
animated feature whose premiere predated DisneysSNOW WHITEby a full
year  and works by contemporary masters, including Japanese animation maestro Hayao
Miyazaki, New York-based veteranGeorge Griffin and renowned Russian expatriate
filmmaker Igor Kovalyov. Our series is also home to edgy and brilliant short films,
including Steffen Schafflers Oscar-nominated chiller "The
Periwig-Maker", Chicago-based animator Lisa Barcys intricate and
hilarious "The Guilt Trip" and J. J. Villards dark and
daring Bukowski adaptation "Son Of Satan". Also featured in this program:
A rare screening of the 1980 Oscar nominee "All Nothing" (Tout Rien) by
Canadas living legend, animator Frederic Back. See a once-in-a-lifetime
bigscreen presentation of Miyazakis rarest feature-length project, Yoshifumi
Kondos WHISPER OF THE HEART. Experience DANGEROUS VISIONS, our evening of
groundbreaking shorts that are definitely NOT for the kids!Plus: Premieres!
Panels! Parties! A continent of wonders awaits at our Egyptian/Aero mini-festival of THE
ANIMATED FILMS THAT GOT AWAY!!!

"DANGEROUS VISIONS: ANIMATED
SHORTS FOR CONNOISSEURS & GROWN-UPS" Somewhere between the always-popular use
of animation as a vehicle for fairytale and fable and the slapstick extremities of the
"extra-sick-and-twisted" school, there is another country, filled with the
tactile, the disturbing, the mundane and the visionary. DANGEROUS VISIONS is our
program of animation for grown-ups and connoisseurs, dedicated to animated works of
uncommon artistic excellence that create unique and often disquieting but fully realized
worlds. Acclaimed Russian-born animator Igor Kovalyov will be in attendance for our
screening of "Milch" (US, 2005, 15 min.)an ellipticalportrait
of accumulating middle class betrayals that packs a novels worth of character detail
into 15 minutes or less. Young turk animator J. J. Villard will be on hand with his
stunning adaptation of Charles Bukowskis "Son Of Satan" (US, 2003,
12 min.), an edgy and profane re-imagining of childhood as a homicide waiting to happen,
which Manohla Dargis of the New York Times has praised for its "rough-hewn
beauty" and Villards "singular talent." In Stefan
Schafflers Tim Burton-esque "The Periwig-Maker" (Germany, 1999,
15 min.), Dafoes "Journal of the Plague Year" is used as an eerie auditory
counterpoint to an 18th Century wigmakers experience of bubonic death. Canadas
master animator Frederic Back received an Oscar nomination for his ecological
masterwork "All Nothing" (Tout Rien) (Canada, 1980, 11 min.), a fable
about Adam and Eve and the death of God. In George Griffin's ambiguously sweet "A
Little Routine" (US, 1994, 7 min.), surrealist technique dramatizes a child's
shifting perceptions of adulthood during a bedtime conversation between a father and
daughter. Chicago-based Lisa Barcys"The Guilt Trip, Or The Vaticans
Take A Holiday" (US, 2004, 14 min.)is a stop-motion
tour-de-"farce" that makes Catholic guilt syndrome seem fun, starring Jesus
Christ, Mary Magdalene and the late great Pope John Paul II. In Mike Overbeck's
"Atlas Takes a Drink" (US, 1999, 3:30 min.) two fish make an act of civil
disobedience against the laws of nature, with hilarious and snowballing results. Plus:
Two+One By Nina Paley. Best remembered locally for her alternative comic strip Ninas
Adventures(syndicated in the L.A. Reader, 1988 - 1995), Nina Paley
has re-invented herself as a trailblazing feminist animator in her fascinating,
idiosyncratic and ambitious works. DANGEROUS VISIONS will present twoWorld
Theatrical Premieresfrom Paleys animated feature-in-progress SITA SINGS
THE BLUES, a re-imagining of the Ramayana of Hindu lore as an epic Betty Boop
cartoon, with accompanying blues songs by Annette Hanshaw. First, we debut the just-struck
35mm print of "Battle Of Lanka," (US, 2006, 3 min.) the first SITA segment
ever seen on film by any audience, anywhere.Next is "Grief And Birth"
(US, 2006, 3 min.),a just-completed SITA segment! PLUS: A look
back at Paleys "Pandorama" (US, 2000, 3 min.) a free-form stunner
hand-drawn on 70mm IMAX short-ends presenting the "Pandoras Box" mythos in
"Garden of Eden" terms. Discussion following with
filmmakers J. J. Villard, Igor Kovalyov and Lisa Barcy moderated by LAFCA member and
series programmer Ray Greene.

Saturday, September 23  7:30 PM

LAFCA Animation/Films That Got Away Series
presents French Animation Masterworks  Then and Now!

RAINING CATS AND FROGS (LA
PROPHETIE DES GRENOUILLES), 2003, Canal Plus, 90 min. Calling all TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE
fans! The first animated feature produced entirely within French borders in over two
decades, director Jacques-Remy Girerds whimsical and imaginative story of
Noahs Ark, recast as an award-winning contemporary fable and epic adventure story.
In the amphibian kingdom, evidence is mounting that a new deluge will soon submerge the
earth. After a harrowing storm, a multi-ethnic farm family and the animal inhabitants of a
nearby zoo find themselves adrift on a floating barn in a seemingly endless sea. Equally
an environmental parable and a pacifistic commentary about hysteria in a time of crisis,
this is the perfect animated feature for the age of AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH and the
"terror alert," offering sanity and mediation as an antidote to our new era of
anxiety. Six years in the making, it is a beautifully mounted film that is appropriate
viewing for all ages, offering a painless way to introduce the whole family to the
pleasures of foreign film-going. A refreshing hand-drawn animation style lends a storybook
air to Girerds delightful animal characters, which include argumentative elephants,
amphibian weather forecasters and cackling carnivores with designs on the rest of the
crew. In French with English subtitles.

THE TABLE TURNS (LE TABLE
TOURNANTE), 1988, Canal Plus, 95 min. Dirs. Paul Grimault, Jacques Demy. The late,
great animator Paul Grimault has been called "the Walt Disney of France" and is
acknowledged as a primary influence by contemporary Japanese maestro Hayao Miyazaki. In
this charming compendium of Grimaults career, Grimault (appearing as himself) leads
the "Accordion Clown" from his masterwork THE KING AND THE MOCKINGBIRD on a
guided, chronological tour of Grimaults best and most well-known works. Grimault
re-edited his own films for inclusion here. The "Out-of-the-Inkwell"-like live
action sequences in which Grimault and his creation interact were directed by the great
French filmmaker Jacques Demy (THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG). A delightful introduction to
and summation of one of European animations greatest oeuvres (if we may be so
French...). In French with English subtitles.

Sunday, September 24 - 7:30 PM

Hayao Miyazakis Rarest Feature-Length
Production!

WHISPER OF THE HEART (MIMI WO
SUMASEBA), 1995, Studio Ghibli/Buena Vista International, 111 min. Dir. Yoshifumi Kondo.
Produced and written by Hayao Miyazaki. In the mid-1990s, the great Japanese
director Hayao Miyazaki (SPIRITED AWAY) wanted to begin mentoring a new generation of
animation artists in Japan. The result was this gentle coming-of-age drama scripted,
produced and storyboarded by Miyazaki and then directed by Yoshifumi Kondo (later
animation director on PRINCESS MONONOKE), whom Miyazaki hoped would introduce new blood
into the directors at his Studio Ghibli. Adapted from the manga by Aoi Hiragi, the
film tells the story of Shizuku, a shy student with high school entrance exam worries and
inchoate aspirations, who meets a magical cat on a commuter bus and follows it to a
boutique where significant objects abound, each with a story of its own. Notable for its
celebration of the mysteries of daily living, "Miyazaki's script suggests that a
sense of magic can exist, even in everyday Tokyo," according to animation
historian Charles Solomon. The story of a young girl finding her voice both literally and
figuratively, this is a film tinged by tragedy: Sadly, Yoshifumi Kondo died of a brain
aneurysm in 1998. His only feature attests to his talent, and Miyazaki has yet to find an
equally talented protégé. English Dubbed Version.Rare
Miyazaki promotional merchandise will be given away at the screening!